


Time to Study

by MilayaMilenZeal



Series: Long Live the Queen [9]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Boredom, Chocobos, Chocochicks, Gen, History of Eos, Post-Game, Studying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-26 02:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9858971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilayaMilenZeal/pseuds/MilayaMilenZeal
Summary: M.E. 779Regina has never liked to study, even with her Dad or Ignis, but there are times when she manages to enjoy it somewhat more.





	

A loud groan escapes 12 year old Regina as she drops her head on the desk in the library, and she gets a lot of people looking at her angrily for being so loud, but she doesn’t much care. By the Six, she _hates_ studying SO much… it’s never been something she had a lot of fond memories of. Sure, she’s studied how to read and write, even if most of that is wasted by the use of phones (i.e. text messages), but it’s still handy in case, you know, the battery dies?

Happened once; wasn’t a fun experience.

But anyway, she doesn’t like to study, and she never has, even when it’s her Dad or Ignis teaching her about things, because she just can’t bring herself to care about it enough to care about things that have already happened. She knows it’s not a healthy perspective on life, since people learn from their mistakes, but what are they going to accomplish learning about the damn Empire?! It’s their fault Lucis is the way it is in the first place, she knows that much…

She’s tried to learn a bit about Eos’ history, but she just finds herself bored SO quickly, it’s a miracle she’s ever made it past the first paragraph. The history books just seem to rattle on and on about so many facts in so little time, it’s actually shocking to her that _anyone_ has ever made it through them.

“Having some difficulty with history there?”

Regina hums as she looks up from the desk. Standing next to her is a girl who may or may not be a few years older than she is, it’s hard to tell. She’s not too tall, maybe a little taller than Regina, but certainly shorter than Terry—then again… Terry is _huge!_ —and she’s dressed all casual, with the only exception being that short red cape/scarf around her neck, secured at the front with a dark gold clasp. But the thing Regina’s most focused on is the calculating green eyes watching her, and the look on her face. It kind of reminds her of Ignis when he’s about to lecture her on something.

“What of it?” Regina asks with a small grumble. She really doesn’t like people looking down on her like she’s stupid.

“Perhaps you should consider looking at it from a different angle.”

Regina frowns at the words, unsure of what she means, so she does what her Dad often does and takes things a little _too_ literal. “Oh yeah, how? Like holding the book upside-down?”

The joke doesn’t go over well (not at all, in fact), and she frowns and pushes her glasses up a bit further up along her nose. “What I _mean_ is that you might wish to consider a different way to picture what it’s trying to tell you. Perhaps even consider things from the other side.”

She chortles at those words. “Oh, yeah, coz the Empire was _sooooo_ nice, huh?”

“War is never fought between good and evil; only between two neutrals.”

“Yeah… right. I think this one was the exception to that rule…”

The girl rolls her eyes, and dammit she really _does_ remind Regina of Ignis. Not a good thing in the current situation.

She closes the book and decides she’s had enough of the history of Eos for the moment, even if she’s only been reading for about 20 minutes. She’d rather be reading up on the Six than anything else, even though she already knows everything there is to know about them, or so everyone tells her.

“Here.”

“Huh?”

Regina blinks when she’s suddenly handed a seemingly random book.

“Perhaps you should consider this one for a change,” the girl says simply… right before she turns and walks off.

“Uh… thanks?” Regina gets out, before she mumbles under her breath: “Weirdo…”

She studies the book a little better and she almost groans again. Oh great; it’s about the rise and fall of the Line of Lucis. Interesting enough to most, sure, but she’s read enough books on them (or tried to, anyway) to know they usually ended up boring the hell out of her. She’s got half a mind to figure out where it comes from and just put it back… but she eventually decides to humor the girl a bit and briefly leafs through the book. Yanno, just to see if it has any nice pictures of the royals.

Because if there’s one thing she’s learned, it’s that she loves their attires. Black is like, almost prohibited to be worn excessively by anyone. The only black thing Regina’s ever worn was some black shorts, and she’s not even allowed to have anything else in black… aside from her Dad’s old jacket, but eh. Anyway, she figured out fairly quickly that the royal family of Lucis wears the color _very_ well.

She’s almost at the end… and then she freezes.

“…‘King Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII’…?” she whispers out the words written below the photo she had just found.

The man displayed there appears to be fairly old, and he looks fairly stern, but at the same time she feels like he was a kind man as well. And reading a small bit of his bio confirms as much. Killed by the Empire when Insomnia fell, when he was trying to keep his people safe from them by signing a treaty to stop the war that had been going on for so long…

He was the last real king of Insomnia, the last of the Line of Lucis… but…

She flips a few more pages, and yeah, sure enough…

“…‘King Noctis Lucis Caelum CXIV’…”

She sits down at the desk, flips back to the beginning of the book and she begins to read, her head supported by her left fist as her eyes and fingers move along the lines in the book, soaking the words up like a sponge. The first page is soon flipped, and then another, and like that, Regina remains for a long time, reading in silence, completely absorbed in the book… until her Dad appears behind her and taps her on the shoulder, almost making her yowl in surprise when she looks up.

“Good book there?” her Dad jokes, and she pouts a bit. Of course he knows how she hates reading or studying or… well, anything that doesn’t involve moving around to _do_ something, so she doesn’t answer the question. “C’mon, let’s go home.”

“…Sure.”

She actually checks out the book from the library, and once she’s in the back of the car, she flips the book open to where she left off, pulls her feet onto the seat and continues to read. She ignores how Gladio is trying to goad her, and just brushes off Ignis’ questions, responding with quiet hums and brief nods or shakes of the head, but really, she isn’t even paying attention to what they’re saying. She doesn’t even stop reading when they get home.

Regina finishes the whole book within three days.

 

“And?”

Regina looks up curiously at the single word from where she was scouring the bookshelves, and finds herself looking at the girl from last time again. It doesn’t take her long to figure out what it is she’s talking about, though.

“…Meh. Was alright… I guess,” she says with a shrug.

She hums in response, adjusting her glasses. “Did you finish it?”

Regina shrugs absently, continuing to look for a book she hasn’t tried her hand on yet that might be interesting.

“I see… so you haven’t read about how Lord Lumen vanquished the Imperials from the land with just his bow and a handful of soldiers in the War of 56… pity.”

…wait what?

“Crossbow.”

“Beg pardon?”

“Lumen had a crossbow, not a regular bow. Also, I don’t think ‘1000 men’ counts as a ‘handful’. …And speaking of, that was in 156, not 56!”

“Oh, so you _did_ read it.”

Regina almost smacks herself in the head for that. She walked right into that one…

“I swear… you’re like a female version of Iggy, only without the cooking.”

“…I’m not sure what you mean, but yes, I do cook.”

Well, shit…

“So… do you have a name?” the girl asks suddenly.

Regina regards her for a moment, considers whether or not to tell because she isn’t supposed to talk to strangers… but what the hell?

“It’s Regina.”

“Charmed. I am Libri. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Yeah… pleasure, I’m sure…”

 

“How… how do you _do_ this?!” Libby is almost complaining, and Regina is almost grinning from her spot on the couch as she watches Ignis and Libby working in the kitchen. “How do you know what and when to do when you…”

She’s still hesitant to bring up Ignis’ lack of sight, even if it hasn’t bothered him in years and he moves around as well as everyone else _with_ sight. It’s almost funny to see the always so composed Libby so surprised over something that’s so normal (to Regina, anyway). Almost. At most, it’s entertaining, but there is _one_ thing that is genuinely ‘funny’.

“I’m gonna go out for a bit,” she exclaims as she stands up. “Probably gonna run ‘round the pens for a bit.”

“Very well. Don’t get the Chocobos all riled up, will you?” Ignis calls after as he continues blindly chopping up the tomatoes into perfect slices.

“Re- _lax_ , Iggy; it’s just a small jog,” Regina laughs as she goes outside, leaving the two cooks to their own business.

Her Dad and Gladio are busy hunting for Behemoths, and Ignis has offered to fix dinner for them. It was also the first time Libri had decided to come with them, if only because she’d never actually been to Wiz’s Chocobo Post before.

Regina smiles as she walks to the Chocobo pens, petting one as it comes over to her with a small chirp. It’s late spring, so it’s the perfect time for what she’s about to do.

She stretches out a bit, turns her upper body both ways before squatting down a few times, then stretching her legs out with her hands still gripping her knees, before she takes off at a leisurely jog around the pen. And sure enough, a few Chocobos who remember her from her last trips chirp and start to trot along beside her and she smiles at them as she keeps up the pace. It’s not really a big lap, but it does help keep the Chocobos in shape, and she’s even been requested by Talcott to do it more often when she’s in the area.

Well, she’s certainly not complaining.

What she _does_ complain about from time to time is Libby’s ‘study regime’. She seems almost determined to have Regina’s head filled with more knowledge than she’ll ever need in her life. The thought’s appreciated, sure, but it _does_ get annoying from time to time. Even when she’s clearly trying to relax and take it easy, Libby seems prepared to make her study almost continuously.

Thankfully, it hadn’t taken Regina long to discover her weakness~

 

“Regina!”

She smirks a bit as she hears Libby calling her, probably to get her inside for ‘study time’, but she doesn’t move from where she’s sitting in the Chocobo pen, petting one of the large birds gently. Only when Libby calls her a second time does she look up.

“Oh hi, Libby, ‘sup?” she asks casually.

“Do not ‘what’s up’ me,” Libby says immediately as she adjusts her glasses. “If you’re done ‘jogging’, then come inside so we can continue your studies.”

“But I’m already studying!” Regina points out.

“Oh? And how are you doing that, hm?”

“I’m studying the effect of prolonged exposure to humans for Chocochicks at their earliest stage in life.”

Libby’s expression doesn’t change a lot, but her eyebrow twitches subtly, and Regina knows she has the brunette’s attention, and so she sits a little straighter and purses her lips and releases a small whistle. This immediately makes a small pack of small yellow birds come over, chirping happily as they all crowd around her and she laughs as she pets and rubs their heads one by one. Regina can see Libby biting her lip, gripping the wooden planks of the pen, but she’s not moving other than that.

“C’mon, Libby! They’re so soft and adorable!” she urges.

“…I’ll pass.”

“Oh don’t be such a stiff! C’mon; these little ones are gonna be all grown up next spring! Gotta take what you can get.”

“…”

She’s hesitating, Regina can tell, but Regina picks up one of the chicks and nuzzles her nose to its beak, and the chick chirps cheerily. Libby _finally_ caves in and she ducks under the planks and steps into the pen, making her way over quietly.

“C’mon! Sit down!” she calls out, patting the ground, and Libby does, though hesitantly. “Here!” she says then, and she holds out the chick to Libby, who almost yelps and backs up. “Go on; hug her! She’s really sweet and she loves hugs!”

She’s actually not sure on the hugging part, but Regina likes to believe the chicks don’t mind _too_ much… as long as you’re not hugging too tightly, of course.

Libby regards the Chocochick like it’s about to bite her in the nose, and the chick’s looking back with a confused “Kwih?” escaping its little beak, but Regina doesn’t move. Eventually, Libby brings up almost shaking hands and takes over the chick, and Regina can see the glitters of awe in her eyes already as she bites her lip to keep from saying anything…

But no luck.

“…so _cuuuuuuute!!_ ” Libby nearly squeals as she hugs the Chocochick to her, and while it chirps in alarm for a moment, it quickly calms down enough and begins to chirp merrily. And this is the sign for all other chicks to crowd around Libby, who can’t stop herself any longer and is going all gaga over the adorable little birds.

The next hour is spent wasting their time in the Chocobo pen until her Dad shows up and takes a picture of her and Libby surrounded by the Chocochicks, with one of them having seated itself on Libby’s head. Libby threatens to hurt him over it, but Regina has it laminated and in her own photo album.

**Author's Note:**

> And then there were four.


End file.
